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deathangel
Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 98
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| Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:32 pm Post subject: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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I was a little skeptical at first, but I started to list my items after a little bit of trouble with the picture portion, when finally i got my first sale today.
submitting the sight to search engines was cool even though they did mention i could take a couple of weeks before the sites pic up the name, but now it's the promotng.
Anyone have any advice for my little store and how to generate more traffic.
Florelas Gift Shop |
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elgato
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 17241
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:41 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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Congrats on your first sale at ecrater!! :D
Always good to hear of sellers having a little success at some of the alternatives out there :D
Please keep us posted |
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Dep-T-Dawg
Joined: 12 Feb 2005
Posts: 6273
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| Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:29 am Post subject: |
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Florelas, Congrats!! You really have lovely
items, so should do well anywhere and especially
as we really get in to Christmas buying time!! :thumbsup: |
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deathangel
Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 98
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| Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:38 am Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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Thank you.
Hopefully with christmas in to near future i get some more sales....
I will let everyone know about my experience |
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2BOYSandTOYS
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 10095
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:45 am Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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I had a sale 'here' outa the blue yesterday!! A pleasant surprise for sure! That's 3 since I joined, and I've not got too much listed (not enuf time in a day)...
:D :D |
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knappschiles
Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 4035
Location: Wi
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:30 am Post subject: |
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I wasn't too thrilled with eC either when I first saw it. In fact I joined, posted 1 listing and about a week later closed my account. There were several reasons, but the no html was one of them. That was last summer.
This winter I tried it again (Feb?) and I've had a nice trickle of sales. In fact I have one sitting here to get filled right now.
Everyone is looking for the ONE site that will replace eBay. It's just not going to work that way. NO one site is going to do it. BUT using a variety of sites AND your own web site can replace the big E.
One week one site will get you sales, the next week it will be a different site that's hot. But put together they will outsell eBay.
My hot selling time of the year is Feb- May, with OK sales in Jan and June. All my alt sites COMBINED way out sold E in Jan and Feb this year. And they came in really close to the E sales in April after E killed the stores search.
So eC is part of my mix in getting away from the big E and it's doing OK for me.
Carol |
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2BOYSandTOYS
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 10095
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:35 am Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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| I so agree Carol - a mix is probably the best answer for most sellers!! :D :D |
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Pipphoe
Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 1231
Location: Long Island, New York
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:24 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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I feel if you're on eCrater why not stay. It is free and you never know. Just about everybody here now knows about the very large Martha Stewart poncho order I got a week ago -- a repeat customer. This is the biggest sale I've had online anywhere.
If you have products that are regular items diversify on sites that you feel might be good. You can't always tell. The only items I have that I have to pick and choose where I list are one-of-a-kinds.
My biggest problem with eCrater -- the inability to do combined shipping easily, i.e. a customer goes in and buys 8 items, as mine did, and the shipping gets discounted when they pay through PayPal. If anybody knows of a way to do this I'm all ears. I'm going to have refund about $30 worth of shipping to this customer, which is why I signed up to do all my labels for FedEx online today. This way I can put the refund in with the package. |
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knappschiles
Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 4035
Location: Wi
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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Cathy,
Why on earth would you send a refund ?? If they pay with PP and you do a partial refund, you will get your PP fee back for that part. Why let PP keep the fee ??
Carol |
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GeorgiaRose
Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 112
Location: Ringgold, GA
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:55 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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Congrats on your first sale. We can celebrate together. I had my first "actual" sale today. Paid before I was notified by Ecrater. Neat! I also had to refund the overpaid shipping. My buyer purchased 3 items, and with no combining, it was in order.
Good luck to you all on future sales. Any other great experiences on less traveled roads?
Rosemary |
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2BOYSandTOYS
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 10095
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:18 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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Rosemary:
We've had 'varied' results with alternative sites - I'm right now having success at HiBidder.COM and Yahoo (as auction sites). Of course, it is important for you to know that these are the sites with the bulk of my items.
Thanks so much - I always get excited when there's a sale - big/small - doesn't matter...almost like being picked on a team - ya know?! :oops: :oops: :D |
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GeorgiaRose
Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 112
Location: Ringgold, GA
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:09 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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I have my first paid sale out of my second store today. I have a theory. My Ebay feeds to Googlebase have been disapproved since last week and I think once they start to disappear, the Ecrater feeds start to rise to the top on Googlebase and Froogle. Do you think that's a possibility. Any way, it's exciting. Perhaps we'll all have a better road ahead of us.
Good luck
Rosemary :D |
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2BOYSandTOYS
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 10095
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:33 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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Rosemary....
I think you may be onto something! I know that many folks use both Google and Yahoo to search vs. either/or. If someone can find the item quickly, easily without all the 'clutter' that ebaY presents, I'm certain they'll pull the trigger on it!!!
Will be interesting to watch and see!! :D :D |
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deathangel
Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 98
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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| The Only thing i detest about the whole process is the going through paypal portion. They really suck out of quite a bit of money. Does anyone have any other alternatives for payment methods? |
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2BOYSandTOYS
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 10095
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:40 pm Post subject: Re: Less than a month old and ecrater is starting to pay off |
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There's another thread where alternatives are being discuss again - for right now, I think the 'fastest' choice is Paypal; the most economical is MO or CC.
I'm not thrilled with paying PP fees, but you at least get paid quickly, have immediate 'tracking records' and are not relying on snailmail for your payment.
AND - at least the listing and FVF fees are 0!! :wink: :wink: |
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